


Establishing a Cover

by avengingvelociraptortimelord (xsilverxlightx)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2839886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsilverxlightx/pseuds/avengingvelociraptortimelord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once things have settled down after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha enlists Sam's help in setting up a new cover and safehouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Establishing a Cover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BuckysButt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckysButt/gifts).



> Sam/Natasha was the pairing I felt most comfortable writing of the three options for the prompt which was fake married. This was a lot of fun to write and I am definitely going to be including Sam more often in my fics now that I feel like I've gotten the hang of writing him.

Sam was pretty sure he ought to be more surprised than he was when he walked downstairs and found Natasha sitting on his kitchen counter like she owned the place. She didn’t even look up from her phone when he walked past her and opened the fridge. Her hair was a bit different, shorter and curled, but that wasn’t the first thing he noticed. She seemed more… settled, sure of herself but in a different way than she’d been before everything went down with SHIELD.

“I go completely off grid for over a month and that’s all the greeting I get?” Natasha asked.

“I don’t know what surprise parties you go to, but the guest of honor is supposed to be the surprised one not the host,” Sam replied as he started the coffee pot.

Natasha grinned and Sam thought it seemed to come a little easier and a little more real than the last time, but it was probably too damn early to put too much thought into that. “Two people isn’t much of a party.”

Sam laughed. “Well maybe you just haven’t been to the right kind of party.” Sam still wasn’t quite sure how this became his life – half flirting with unfairly attractive super heroes at the ass crack of dawn.

“There’s not much time for partying in my line of work, I guess.”

“Now that is a real shame, but I suppose there has to be a few downsides to the whole super sexy spy thing.”

Natasha set her phone down on the counter. “I’m not a spy anymore.”

“Oh really?” Sam asked, trying not to sound like he was trying to sound too casual.

“With my face all over the news and all my covers blown it wasn’t really an option anymore… I believe the official title is something like Stark Industries Consultant slash occasional Contract Super Hero.”

“You’re working for Stark?”

Natasha grimaced. “No. Technically Pepper but mostly I’ll just be doing what Maria needs me to do… But I didn’t come here just to flirt and tell you about my new job.”

“Can’t say I’m that surprised… Just throwing it out there though, any time you do want to just flirt I am very, very much on board with that.”

She shook her head but she was smiling. “You’ve got awhile before you head back out with Steve and I know you don’t have to go into the VA this week.” Sam nodded and folded his arms across his chest. “Even if I’m not a spy anymore, it’s still beneficial that I have at least a few covers I can fall back on.”

“And where do I come into all this?”

“Congratulations, Wilson,” Natasha reached into her pocket and then tossed him a ring. “We’re getting hitched.”

“You’re serious.”

Natasha shrugged. “If you’re not up for it, I can do this on my own… I’d just rather not, I guess.”

Sam placed his hands on the counter on either side of her. “You know, Natasha, you can just tell me if you want a piece of this,” he’d meant to sound teasing but he was pretty certain it hadn’t come off that way.

“I know,” she responded matter-of-factly. “I like multitasking. And I’ve thought about this a lot. Undercover work was… fun sometimes. And it would be useful to know how well I can do this when I’ve got no mark and no real agenda besides establishing the character.”

“Why me?”

“A lot of reasons. It’d be a good idea for you to have a cover if something goes wrong. I don’t want to fall back into old habits by partnering with anyone from SHIELD. Rogers is pretty terrible at the undercover thing and we’d be much too easy to recognize together.” Natasha placed one of her hands on top of his. “Plus we’ve got better chemistry.”

“Oh really?” Sam asked with a grin. Natasha didn’t reply, just leaned forward and kissed him. By the time she pulled back one of her hands was fisted in his shirt and both of his were wrapped around her waist. Sam cleared his throat. “Okay. Yeah, that was good… But are you sure this whole thing is a good idea?”

She nodded. “I’ve thought this through. It isn’t a long term thing. Just set up the identities, find a safehouse, check in on it every once and awhile. We’ll say you’re a pilot. I’m a stewardess. It’s a cute story, explains why we aren’t there most of the time, you know enough about flying and I know about all of the places we’d have been to… and if everything goes to hell again, there’s somewhere to go that no one else knows about.”

Sam watched her for a moment. “When do we start?”

“We’ve got an appointment to view places in Chicago tomorrow morning. We fly out in six hours.”

* * *

“I thought you said we were looking at places in Chicago,” Sam remarked as they pulled up in the rental car.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Is this going to be a problem? There are less people, bigger places, and closer to the airport here in the suburbs.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Johnson,” the woman greeted warmly. “Lovely to finally meet you. I think this place could be exactly what you’re looking for,” she continued as she shook both of their hands firmly. “Now I know your wife said the two of you travel so much for work that you won’t get to spend all that much time at home but I still think it is very important that we find a house that the two of you will absolutely love.”

“We couldn’t agree more, Mrs. Fischer,” Natasha replied as she slipped one arm around Sam’s waist and smiled up at him. Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple.

“How long have the two of you been married?” she asked as she led them up the sidewalk.

“Six months,” Sam responded.

“But we’d been together three years before that,” Natasha added.

“How sweet,” Mrs. Fischer said as she opened the front door. “Now as I told your wife on the phone last week, this house has four bedrooms and two and a half baths. It’s about 3,000 square feet so it’s very spacious. Two floors of course, plus a fully furnished basement.  The property is just under half an acre so there’s lots of room in the yard if either of you are interested in gardening or landscaping. I know it might seem a bit big for just the two of you but if you ever have relatives or friends visiting… or if you decide to settle down and start a family of your own…”

“After all the nights we’ve spent in airport hotels, we’re looking for a nice, big space so we can unwind when we’re in town,” Sam explained.

“It’ll be lovely to finally have a place that everyone can come visit us for once too,” Natasha agreed. “Stan’s got a big family.”

Mrs. Fischer led them around the house, pointing out all of the various amenities and telling them all about what a wonderful neighborhood it is, ending the tour with the basement.

“If you could give us a moment-“

“Oh of course, I’ll just be upstairs in the kitchen,” she assured them before leaving the room.

“So,” Sam began as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “This place still fitting your safehouse requirements?” he asked quietly as he leaned in closer to her.

Natasha rested her hands on his chest. “It’s got decent sightlines without having too many windows. It’s a bit big, but with a proper security set up that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. This basement is perfect for training and stashing a small armory.”

“Well then, babe, let’s go buy ourselves a house.”

Natasha rocked up on her toes and kissed him. Sam had meant it when he told Fury he was more of a soldier than a spy, but damn, he’d be lying if he said pretending to be married to a woman like Romanoff with little to no chance of running into any Hydra agents wasn’t a change he might just be able to get used to.

“We’ll take it,” Natasha told Mrs. Fischer excitedly as they walked into the kitchen.

* * *

 They'd been unpacking the u-haul for about an hour when the first of the neighbors decided to come introduce themselves. 

Sam had managed to busy himself with boxes while Natasha did most of the talking but then she waved him over. "Stan, this is Dave and Martha Sneider. They live two doors down with their daughter, Katie, and from what I understand an absolutely lovely little shih tzu named Princess, right?" Martha nodded enthusiastically.

"Stan Johnson," Sam replied before shaking their hands. 

"So, Allie here was just telling us that you're a pilot?"

Sam nodded. "I wanted to fly ever since I was a kid. Of course, it's a lot more work and a lot less glamorous than I thought it would be back then, but it was certainly worth it... Especially since I might never have met Allison otherwise."

Natasha sighed and placed a hand over her heart before kissing him on the cheek. "He's such a romantic," she enthused. "And we're just so excited to be moving into such a lovely neighborhood. I just wish we could spend more time here getting set up before we have to get back to work."

"Well surely you'll be around more once you have kids," Martha replied. "You don't want to wait too long."

"We'll see," Natasha replied with the hesitancy Sam would expect from a woman who likes her job. "As much as I'd love to continue our little chat, we really should get back to unpacking."

"Need any help?" Dave asked.

Sam shook his head. "Thanks, but we've got it under control. Allison has a very particular idea of where everything needs to go and well, an... interesting labeling system."

Natasha huffed and lightly slapped his arm. 

"Well, we'll leave you two to it then. Welcome to the neighborhood," Dave said before they headed back to their house.

Natasha headed back over to the u-haul and started to shift through them. Sam grabbed a couple labelled kitchen and brought those inside. 

“Stan, babe, can you bring these boxes down to the basement?” Natasha called once Sam walked back outside. The fact that those boxes were going in the basement most likely meant they were full of all sorts of dangerous and complicated equipment, so really the most fun part of the house. It also meant he was going to have to be particularly careful with them.

Once they were finished outfitting the house he was going to find out how she just happened to have all this stuff already together. He couldn’t say he was surprised but it was pretty damn impressive. “Uh-huh. And what are you going to give me if I do?” he teased as he walked up behind her and settled his hands on her hips.

She gave him a stern look over her shoulder. “Give you?”

“Yeah, see, that’s all your stuff. So the way I figure it, you’ll owe me,” he explained. As far as he could tell, none of the neighbors were watching them at the moment but he was trying to play it safe. After all, Nat had told him on the way to the airport that a pair of newlyweds buying their first house would be pretty handsy.

Natasha looked thoughtful before twisting in his arms so she could lean up and brush her lips against his ear. “No. Your reward is that you get to go home and brag to Cap about how you’re so much better at the whole undercover thing,” she shifted to kiss him and then murmured against his mouth. “And at kissing. Now act like I just promised you exactly what Stan would want his wife promising.”

Sam pulled her tighter against him and grinned like he was the luckiest man alive. He kissed her one more time for good measure, putting as much charm and confidence of man about to get laid into it. Sam wasn’t foolish enough to think that her gasp or the flush spreading across her cheeks was anything but manufactured but it was sure a nice idea. He winked at her before hoisting up three boxes to take into the house and down to the basement.

* * *

“Honey, I’m home,” Sam declared as he brought the take out into the living room.

Natasha smiled as shut her laptop. “I’ll grab drinks.”

Sam set the various cartons of Chinese food out on the coffee table before flipping on the television and grabbing a carton of fried rice. Natasha returned a few moments later with two bottles of beer and sprawled out beside him on the couch. Sam was only half following the sitcom he’d settled on as they ate.

“You hear from Steve yet?” Natasha asked eventually.

“He hasn’t gotten any new leads yet but he’s anxious to get back out there.”

Natasha nodded. “I’m surprised he’s stopped this long, but I’m glad he did. What about you? Ready to go back to fighting Hydra and searching for a ghost that doesn’t seem to want to be found?”

“That a trick question?” Sam asked before he took a long drink from his beer. “I get the urgency. Bucky doesn’t deserve to be going through whatever he’s dealing with on his own and I’m going to help Steve as long as I can. But that doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to the end of this little vacation mission.”

“Didn’t take you for the picket fence type, Wilson,” Natasha teased.

Sam laughed. “Well, Stan and Allison aren’t exactly that either with all the travelling they do. They’re certainly not going to be jumping on the whole 2.5 kids thing anytime soon at least.”

“A married couple doesn’t buy a house this big if they aren’t at least considering it.”

“Alright. Who wants kids and who doesn’t then?”

She shook her head. “It’s not that simple. But it doesn’t matter, two more days and then if we’re lucky, we won’t have to come back.”

“Tired of me already, Romanoff?”

Natasha rolled her eyes as she set down the carton of Kung Pao Chicken she’d just finished. She glanced briefly over at the window before shifting so her legs were thrown across his lap and then pulled him into a kiss. Sam didn’t bother to protest, just slid an arm around her waist and kissed her back. When Natasha didn’t pull away as quickly as he expected her to, Sam tangled his other hand in her hair. He thought he might have been getting even better at this, just rolling with whatever she tossed at him as part of their cover. He didn’t have any delusions that he’d somehow missed out on his true calling in life to be a spy but hell yeah Natasha’d been right that this was one thing he was going to get to lord over Cap.

He stopped thinking about Cap and anything else altogether though when she shifted over so she was straddling his lap and still kissing him like they were actual newlyweds. He wasn’t sure how long they spent like that but both of them were breathing hard when she eventually pulled back but didn’t move off of his lap.

“Neighbors across the street were out front and kept glancing over here,” Natasha explained before carefully unfolding herself to go tug the curtains closed. Sam took a deep breath and shook his head to try to clear his thoughts before gathering up the empty food cartons.

They headed upstairs once they finished cleaning up and then Natasha was in his space again, leaning up to kiss him. “Worried the neighbors are spying on us up here too?” he teased as he took a step back.

“No,” Natasha admitted. “But I’m not opposed to being very thorough.”

Sam laughed. Sure, they got along well enough and were both pretty attractive adults who also didn't often get to meet people who really understood their kind of lifestyle and this whole cover had seemed a bit like an excuse to get to make out with him whenever she wanted but to have her even sort of admitting to that was a lot more than he'd been expecting at the moment.

“I am probably going to hate myself a little for saying this, but not as much as I would if I didn’t… You were right about us having chemistry and I am definitely interested in seeing how far that goes but if we’re going to do that, it needs to be as just Sam and Natasha, so there’s no confusion about what’s us and what’s Stan and Allison.”

Natasha looked thoughtful as she took a step back. “Right… That makes sense.”

“We good?”

She nodded as she walked over to the dresser and pulled off her shirt before glancing over her shoulder at him. “Just to clarify, does that mean we have to wait until we get back to D.C. or just that we have to agree that we’re only being us right now?”

"You are trying to distract me," Sam accused, though he couldn't help grinning.

"Uh-huh," Natasha agreed easily. "Is it working?"

Sam didn't bother to reply just crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. 

* * *

On their last morning there, they went for a run at the nearby park. They were both holding back at least a little to avoid drawing too much attention but it was certainly nice to be running with someone he at least had a fighting chance of keeping up with. He was also pretty certain she was slowing down at least as often as he was so she could check him out the way he was looking her over right now. HE really wasn't sure what he'd done to get this lucky.

“Well I’ll be damned. Sam!” A man walking a dog called out.

If Natasha was concerned by the fact that he’d been recognized, she didn’t show it. “Don’t ignore him, that will draw more attention,” she whispered quickly before turning to face the man.

“Bryant, I didn’t know you moved out here,” Sam replied as he stopped and turned as well.

The man grinned widely as he approached them. He grabbed Sam’s left hand and then pulled him into a quick hug. “Two years ago. I thought you were out in DC still, man.” He stared down at Sam’s hand for a moment. “Dude. You’re married?”

“Only just,” Natasha replied before Sam could come up with a feasible story about the ring. She smiled brightly as she wrapped her arm around his waist.

Bryant looked Natasha over. “You lucky bastard.”

“I’m Allison, by the way. It’s lovely to meet another of Sam’s friends, especially so unexpectedly. We’re just finishing a visit to some of my family before we head back to D.C.”

“Give me a call next time you’re out here then, Sam. It’d be great to spend more time catching up.”

“Sure thing, man. I’m glad we ran into you.”

Bryant nodded and waved before heading off.

Sam took a deep breath. “We need to get home, asap.”

Natasha arched an eyebrow. “You worried we’re going to run into more of your old friends? That’s statistically unlikely.”

Sam shook his head. “No but I need to go call my mom before she hears from one of my sisters that I’m married and in Chicago.” They finished out their lap and then headed home.

As soon as they were inside Sam took out his phone. “Hey, mom,” he greeted once she answered.

“I’m fine… No, everything’s fine. Uh, actually I was just calling because there’s a chance you guys might hear from Bryant that I’m married- I’m not, definitely not. But it’d be helpful if you could just play along. It’s for a cover for a friend-“

“No- Mom- I-“ Sam took a deep breath and stopped trying to get a word in edgewise.

Natasha who’d been watching the conversation with what Sam would have described as something like tolerant amusement gestured for him to hand her the phone. Sam shook his head. Natasha sighed impatiently and before Sam really registered what had happened she’d managed to grab the phone.

“Hello, Mrs. Wilson? This is Sam’s friend, Natasha… Yes, that was me on the news… No, it’s nothing dangerous, this is just a precaution…” Natasha glanced over at Sam and winked.  “Of course… I understand… If you’re sure… Yes, that sounds lovely. Alright, good bye.” She tossed the phone back to him.

“We have to go visit her once we get back to the East Coast.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “You’re okay with meeting my family?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged. “That’s usually a pretty big thing, in real relationships anyway, but uh, that's fine."

Natasha frowned. "Sorry. I just assumed that it wouldn't be a problem. Whenever I was undercover it was usually a pretty quick thing whether I was the type of girl they'd take home to meet their family or not and I guess I just assumed..."

"Whoa, hey, I definitely did not say that I don't want you meet them," Sam interrupted quickly. "This early on in things I can just pretty safely say that I would probably be more than a little nervous if I was meeting your family."

"Oh. Well I hate to break it to you, Wilson, but you've already met most of the people I consider family."

It caught Sam off guard, though it probably shouldn't have. Even without all of Natasha's files having been leaked on the internet he could have seen that sometimes Natasha felt just as out of place as Steve. The few people she trusted at S.H.I.E.L.D. were the closest thing she had to a family which meant... "I am never going to be able to look Fury in the eye again, am I? He'll know and he'll kill me and no one will ever find the body."

Natasha laughed and slipped her arms around Sam's neck. "Relax. Nick likes you and besides that I am pretty sure he's got bigger concerns right now."

"I guess taking down Hydra ranks a little higher than trying to intimidate anyone whose interested in you. So, are we really going to do this? You actually want to meet my family and try to make this work as just us?"

Natasha grinned. "I wouldn't have offered if I couldn't handle it. And while I did need a new cover and safehouse, I could have easily done this without you but this seemed more fun." Sam would have laughed but then Natasha was kissing him. It was probably a little ridiculous but Sam couldn't help thinking that there was a difference between her kissing him as Allison and as herself. It was better when it was just them.


End file.
